NCJ Number
110488
Journal
John Marshall Law Review Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1985) Pages: 115-129
Date Published
1985
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The Supreme Court, in New Jersey v. T.L.O., should have ruled that a search of a student's handbag by a school official was unconstitutional under the fourth amendment because it intruded unnecessarily into an area of expected student privacy and was carried out for a violation of a minor school rule.
Abstract
In New Jersey v. T.L.O. the Supreme Court considered whether the school official violated the fourth amendment in opening a schoolgirl's purse after she had been found smoking against school rules in a school bathroom and denied the smoking. The Court found that the search of the purse was not unreasonable because (1) the search of the purse was not a severe invasion of the schoolgirl's privacy rights when balanced against the school's interests in preserving internal discipline and order; (2) the search was justified at its inception; and (3) the search as conducted was reasonably related to the circumstances leading to the search. However, the Court's perception of the search as reasonable ignores the facts that the student's purse was a protected area of privacy and the reason for the search was a violation of a minor school rule. This full-scale intrusion for a minor infraction liberalizes the reasonableness standard to the detriment of students' fourth amendment rights, the author argues. 102 footnotes.